Technically, they can run a gas line from the meter anywhere, but they are all going to charge you by the linear foot to bury it and it can get expensive quickly. Also, it has to come directly off the meter, you can't hook it to a gas stub somewhere else from your house. The advice to keep it away from your bedroom is also good advice.
My Centerpoint natural gas bill came. It ended up costing me $7/day (about 9CCF of gas per day) to run my generator to power my 1700 sqft house including a 3 Ton AC. That's more expensive than regular electricity, but not exorbitantly so. EDIT: I have a the 9000w Champion inverter portable generator and I have my AC set to 75F.
Not bad at all and for the purpose it served a HELL of a deal, hell I had to pay $150 just for one night at a motel....................I never want to go through 8 days of no power ever again. Do you have the full house generator that kicks in seconds after the power goes out?
No it's a 9000w Champion inverter tri-fuel portable generator. I should've put that in the post! It's definitely well worth it. I think I would've happily paid $50 in natural gas a day to have electricity, but I don't want Centerpoint to get any ideas!
Just bought a 11500w tri-fuel generator hoping to run it off NG and connecting it to a transfer switch. However now reading that I probably can’t connect it to my bbq gas line and may need to install a new gas for it. Unfortunately my gas meter is on the complete opposite side of where my electrical box and I dont think I can find a long enough transfer switch power cord. Any thoughts?
What's the size of your bbq grill natural gas connection and what's the length of the run? One option would be to see where your furnace pipes are relative to your power panel. Maybe you can tee off the furnace natural gas pipes which are usually much bigger than a BBQ grill connection. You'll also unlikely to run both the furnace and the generator on full tilt at the same time. Another possibility is to get a plumber/Centerpoint to increase the pressure of natural gas coming into your house. Then you can get by with a smaller diameter line. The drawback is that you'll need to install pressure regulator before every gas appliance to lower it back down to what the appliance is expecting.
For people with natural gas, are you using regulators to make sure your appliances are getting the necessary gas? Some info I got was that you should so the generator doesn't suck up all the gas being supplied.
I was looking at new construction online and realized that some builders are offering free Generac generators as incentives now. lol. Or maybe not lol. Crazy times.
Back in the ‘50s, free generic fall-out shelters were a thing, too. (I just made that up. But maybe true.)
The plumbers that hook everything up should be making sure the regulators from the meter are the correct size. Also, the size of your meter will factor into the calculations on whether you need regulators or not. If your meter is the correct size and its properly regulated, you should be able to run every gas appliance in your house plus your generator at the same time.
Its certainly a good incentive, and it would be easier to install at construction in case they have to run additional gas lines from your meter (and to have an upgraded meter in the beginning instead of having to switch it out)
Believe me, I'm interested for that specific reason. I was just saying I don't think I'd ever seen something like that before. I wonder if that reassures or scares out-of-state potential homebuyers? The only negative for me is that they may basically be taking their $20k incentives they had before and just dumping it into a generator install (single fuel, at that), so you don't get the "upgrade money" you otherwise would, but I haven't looked into it.
I helped several people hook up to outdoor kitchens and even one dude a fireplace. It should be fine but why not just try it out?
I just read some of the fine print. From what I read it's a 24kw Generac generator. My guess is it's a Generac Guardian that's something like a $6k model. The only problem in the fine print of at least one builder I saw was they don't assume warranty for the generator (which I would think Generac would deal with), its performance, electrical issues, etc. Which makes me wonder if anybody would assume responsibility because it could end up a situation where the builder doesn't assume any responsibility a screw up and Generac could say "it was installed incorrectly, so your warranty is void".
I ain't paying no money for a godamn generator when we should be on an actual grid and better infrastructure. I ain't Tim the tool guy from home improvement, *** outta here! This why this **** keeps happening!!! I pay you turn on my damn lights!
